The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Adam Weber's Nos. 1380 and 1382 Lexington Avenue

Born in Germany, the multi-talented Adam Weber not only established the firm
of Adam Weber’s Sons, he was highly involved in
New York’s German community. He founded the German Exchange Bank and the Germania Bank
and was instrumental in the formation of the Union Square Bank.

An architect and builder as well, his firm
manufactured “fire bricks.”American Gas
Light Journal would remind readers on September 26, 1904 that he “was one of
the pioneers who blazed the way for the scientific manufacture of fire-clays in
different shapes and forms.”He was the
first to manufacture fire-clay gas retorts to the U.S.

photograph Brick magazine July 1904 (copyright expired)

Around 1885 Weber designed two nearly mirror-image homes at
Nos. 1368 and 1370 Lexington Avenue. Within three years they would be
renumbered 1380 and 1382.The neo-Grec
residences were faced, not surprisingly, in red brick and sat on brownstone
basements.The up-to-the-minute homes
were intended for financially-comfortable families. No. 1380, at the northwest corner of 91st
Street, was given a few extras—not only did the corner location provide
additional windows and sunlight; the house boasted a small balcony at the
second floor and an angular projecting bay at the side.

A brick-and-stone bay sprouts from the 91st Street elevation.

No. 1382 became home to Adam’s son, Oscar Bismarck Weber and
his wife Laura.Immediately upon his graduation from the College of the City of New York, he had entered his father’s
business, the fireclay works of which were located on East 15th
Street.When Adam Weber retired in 1890,
Oscar took over the presidency.

Like his father, Oscar involved himself in the German
community.A lover of music, he was a
member of the Liedekranz and Arion Socities of New York—two German singing organizations.Although American Gas Light Journal described
Oscar Weber as “robust, jocund, smiling, jollying,” he developed liver disease; “the ravages of which he fought with vigor and not
complainingly,” it said.

In September 1904 Weber underwent a liver operation.He was taken to the Stratford hotel to
recuperate; but it was not to be.He
died there on the afternoon of Friday September 16 at the age of 45.His funeral was held in the Lexington Avenue
house the following Monday at 11:00 a.m.

In the meantime the John B. Hasslocher family had lived next
door at No. 1380. John’s wife, Eliza was just 44 years old when
she fell ill in 1897.She died in the
house on November 14 that year.

By the turn of the century that house seems to have been operated
as a boarding house.In 1901 Mrs.
Theresa Reinach, a notary public, lived here, as did Paul Weber.Apparently not related to Adam Weber, Paul was
arrears on his personal taxes that year. By 1904 Dr. Homer B. Sprague was
seeing his patients in the house.

Almost immediately after Oscar Weber’s death, No. 1382
became home to another general contractor, Edmund D. Broderick and his wife, the
former Gertrude Lantry.The wealthy
contractor was responsible for the construction of scores of New York City
buildings.Gertrude died in 1907 and
Broderick later remarried Elizabeth Farrell.The family would remain in the house for decades.

It is possible that the 1918 widening of Lexington Avenue for the proposed subway resulted in the sideways stoops.

By 1918 the corner house had been purchased by Louis C. Bock
and his wife, Marie.Bock ran a
successful livery business at No. 169 East 87th Street.On May 2, 1920 the couple would announce the
engagement of their daughter, Marion Eleanor Bock, to John Huchinson Marsh.Within the year they sold the house to Dr.
Daniel P. Morse.

Morse’s deceased father had also been a physician.Daniel’s mother, Grace, moved into No. 1380
with the family; however she died soon here on November 13, 1921.As was customary, her funeral was held in the
house two days later.

The advantageous corner site made it possible for Daniel
Morse to have a private garage constructed on the property in 1922.

The Broderick and Morse families would remain neighbors for
years.In 1930 Katherine Broderick
married Joseph Lorenz; and in 1936 her mother, Elizabeth, died in the house
where she had lived for more than three decades.

In 1939, the same year that William H. Morse married Jean
Millett, the 70-year old Edmund D. Broderick died.Among the notable structures he had built
were St. John’s Church and school, Our Lady of Mercy Church and rectory, and
the School of the Nativity (all in Brooklyn), and Manhattan’s St. Leo’s Church.

Daughter Katherine Lorenz converted No. 1382 to offices,
with a caretaker’s apartment on the top floor.She retained ownership until September 1946.

Dr. Daniel P. Morse was still living next door.He stayed on until April 1953 when he sold the
house to playwright Augustus Goetz.Goetz and his wife, Ruth Goodman Goetz, had collaborated on plays and motion
pictures since 1930; but they were finally seeing success.

In 1947 their dramatization of The Heiress by Henry James was a hit.It was their fourth play and Basil Rathbone
starred in the Bilmore Theatre production.Two years later it was produced by Paramount Pictures with Olivia de
Haviland, Montgomery Clift and Miriam Hopkins in the cast.

The couple continued working on plays from No. 1380 Lexington Avenue.The Immoralist, was staged in February, 1954, shortly after they
moved in.An adaptation of Andre Gide’s
novel, it was sponsored by Billy Rose and starred Geraldine Page and Louis
Jourdan.

At the age of 56, Augustus Goetz died on September 30, 1957,
after an illness of only two weeks.The
house was converted to apartments; but it would not be the end of theatrical
connections here.

The houses retain original interior and exterior doors and hardware.

In the 1960s Broadway director Sidney Lumet had an apartment
in the building.It was the scene of the
wedding of Lyn Redgrave and John Clark on April 2, 1967. The 23-year old
actress had just been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Georgy
Girl. Clark had been a child star in
Britain.

The celebrated guests included Redgrave’s father and mother,
Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and her sister, actress Vanessa
Redgrave (who was also nominated for an Oscar at the time for her role in Morgan).

Both houses have been restored to single family
residences.An unexpected amount of
original interior elements survive; offering a glimpse of the lifestyles of the
upper class families who lived here in the 1880s.